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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Muslim women for personal law reform to avert uniform code -Eram Agha

Muslim women for personal law reform to avert uniform code -Eram Agha

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published Published on Oct 30, 2015   modified Modified on Oct 30, 2015
-The Times of India

ALIGARH: Mumbai-based Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan is ready to launch a "Public Hearing" in Delhi for the ban on triple talaq, recording the testimonies of Muslim women on how they suffered because of the regressive personal laws.

What drives the group to launch the programme is a case from Uttar Pradesh, where 24-year-old Shahida, married in 2008 was arbitrarily divorced. After a month of her marriage her in-laws started pressurizing her for dowry. Fed up of being abused, she left her husband's house to stay with her parents and filed a case against them. In the middle of the court case, they settled their issues outside of the court. She went back to stay with her husband only to be told he had divorced her. "There is no decision on her case till date," said the founder member of the Andolan, Zakia Soman.

Organizations fighting for the reformation in Muslim personal laws in India think that the community has earned a bad name due to the persistence of regressive practices like triple talaq and polygamy even after so many years of demand for reform from Indian Muslim women. "Only if we have reform in personal laws that do not encourage arbitrary divorces and polygamy that the possibility of Uniform Civil Code can be averted. The religion and Quran gives space for reform, but it has not happened in the patriarchal setup of the Muslim Personal Law Board. For them the time is never right," Soman said.

The answer to the problem of polygamy and triple talaq "is not Uniform Civil Code but adopting changes and seeking reformation as per the demands of time and Muslim women," said Shaista Amber of All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board.

Citing examples of countries like Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco and even Pakistan, Soman said "Muslim countries have been able to usher in reform in personal law, and that should be possible in India too." In Pakistan their Family Laws Ordinance, 1961 places restrictions on polygamy and immediate talaq. The 1961 amended law continued in Bangladesh after its independence from Pakistan. Tunisia has a Code of Personal Status (CPS) that is called 'majala' in Arabic. These are advanced family laws that have abolished polygamy, established legal equality between men and women in the case of divorce etc. Morocco has imposed legal restrictions on polygamous marriages. Neighboring Algeria in its recent amendments to the Algerian Family Code has complicated polygamous marriage as it is subject to conditions. However, Indian Muslim personal law still permits it.

The assistant general secretary of All India Muslim Personal Law Board Abdur Rahim Qureshi said from Hyderabad, "Triple talaq cannot be banned as it is coming from the days of Prophet Mohammad. Polygamy is not so much as it is attributed to Muslim societies - polygamy in Indian Muslims has been blown out of proportion. It is hardly 4%. Other communities in India too have multiple partners but there is no attention on them." He added that Pakistan was able to have the 1961 ordinance that placed restrictions on immediate talaq because of the dictatorial leadership. "Such changes are not easy in a democracy, where people will have a say. These are social problems that cannot be solved with legislation or law. We need social reform and education and not interference of the laws," he said.


The Times of India, 30 October, 2015, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Muslim-women-for-personal-law-reform-to-avert-uniform-code/articleshow/49589088.cms


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